U.S. Pat. No. 3,894,631 discloses an egg conveyor assembly having a first endless conveyor with six lanes, wherein the eggs are oriented horizontally and supported on rollers and a second conveyor with one lane of egg retaining pockets for carrying the eggs oriented vertically. An egg transfer mechanism is provided at the discharge end of the first conveyor. The transfer mechanism comprises six egg transfer cups and receives the eggs in the horizontal orientation in said cups and drops the eggs in the retaining pockets of the second conveyor. The transfer mechanism is adapted to tilt the cups to a downwardly inclined position and is adapted to accelerate the egg transfer cups to a velocity that approximates the velocity of the second conveyor.
In EP 2 174 896 A1 a different egg conveyor assembly is disclosed. In this known assembly a first conveyor and a second conveyor cross each other, wherein the second conveyor is positioned below the first conveyor. The first conveyor has rows of retaining seats and the second conveyor has retaining seats for receiving eggs from above and retain them. The pitch between the retaining seats of the first conveyor in the crosswise direction can be changed. Subsequently the retaining seats of the first conveyor can be accelerated in the direction of movement of the second conveyor to synchronise their speed with the conveying speed of the second conveyor and the eggs are ejected from the retaining seats of the first conveyor directly into the retaining seats of the second conveyor. In this known egg conveyor assembly the retaining seats of the first conveyor retain a speed transverse to the direction of the second conveyor when the transfer of eggs takes place. This has the disadvantage that the eggs that are dropped from the seats of the first conveyor into the seats of the second conveyor have a relative horizontal speed component. If the speed of the first conveyor is increased the risk of damaging or loss of eggs is increased. This thus limits the speed of the first conveyor and consequently the capacity of the conveyor assembly.
The present invention has for an object to provide an alternative egg conveyor assembly.